“Not on her birthdays. Not at Christmas.”

He sighed, rubbing his forehead with a hand that wore a heavy gold signet ring.

“I wanted to, Mother, but it was too painful.”

“Every time I thought about what I was missing, it tore me apart.”

“I decided it was better to keep my distance until I could offer her a real, structured future.”

Caroline tilted her head, her analytical gaze stripping away his polished exterior.

Her left shoulder, where her arm ended, shifted slightly under her blue knitted sweater.

“What about Rebecca?” Caroline asked.

Thomas stiffened at the mention of her mother’s name.

“Rebecca was… complicated,” he said, his voice dropping to a confidential whisper.

“She wasn’t ready to be a mother, Caroline.”

“She wanted to walk away from the very beginning.”

“I tried to hold things together, but she made it impossible for us to remain a family.”

I clenched my jaw to keep from interrupting him.

Rebecca had been a phantom in our lives for sixteen years, but her recent package had changed everything.

The legal documents she had sent earlier in the week were still sitting in my bedroom drawer.